


Just a Longer Tunnel

by calliecaddie



Series: A Crumbling Universe [3]
Category: Cloak & Dagger (TV 2018), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:21:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23717380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calliecaddie/pseuds/calliecaddie
Summary: While on their ongoing cross-country trip to save the world, Tyrone Johnson and Tandy Bowen arrive in New Mexico. But no sooner do they arrive do people start mysteriously disappearing around them again. Only this time, far more is at stake.
Relationships: Tandy Bowen & Tyrone Johnson
Series: A Crumbling Universe [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1705459
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Just a Longer Tunnel

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't yet nor do I plan to watch season 3 of Runaways where they cross over, but I did my best with what I looked up to work it into this story. Let me know if I got any details wrong

If there was one thing that Tandy Bowen learned, it’s that being a hero would never be easy. Saving New Orleans twice from utter disaster taught her that well, as did dimension hopping with a ragtag group of runaway teens. Trying to fix the world beyond was a far bigger undertaking. She was just a girl who could make daggers of light, after all. She could fling a few at a bad guy, but she wondered how much of a difference she could make outside of the small town she had never left before. 

Fortunately, she had her shroud watching over her. 

Tyrone Johnson was always at her side, trying to share the burden with her. He could use the shadows to move anywhere she couldn’t and help her reach the unreachable. But more importantly, he saw the strength that Tandy was capable of mustering, especially when she couldn’t find it herself. They made each other better, carried each other through their own struggles. When most people feared the long, dark tunnel ahead of them--devoid of all but a glimmer of hope at the far end--she sought refuge in the very same darkness. She could do anything as long as Tyrone was with her.

They’d spent a few months crossing the country, trying to do whatever good they could along the way. They fought their hardest, and the places that they visited certainly changed whenever they arrived. They realized early on that they could only do so much, and that it was up to the people they helped whether or not they wanted to make their own difference. Time would only tell if they could.

For now, at least, they were on a packed city bus, They were lucky enough to get some seats next to each other as they went on their way to anywhere else.

Tandy stared wistfully out of her window, watching the buildings and people scroll past as they sped down the street. Tyrone was fast asleep beside her. She slid her phone out of her pocket and opened up a chat window with Officer Brigid O’Reilly back in New Orleans.

[Just got into New Mexico. Anything in the area we can take care of?]

**[Brigid is typing]**

It never took long for Brigid to respond. As hard as Tandy and Tyrone worked outside of their hometown, Brigid would always be working just as hard in it. 

**Brigid**  
[Where, exactly? I’ll talk to some friends there and see]

Tandy switched to a map app on her phone to get a fix on their location. While she waited for it to load, she nudged Tyrone to rouse him. “Welcome to New Mexico, Mister Johnson.”

Tyrone groaned, clamping his eyes shut for even an ounce more of sleep. “I asked you to wait until we got to another motel,” he groaned amiably.

“Why, so you could sleep more when we get there?” Tandy chuckled.

“Exactly.” Tyrone stretched upward. “Too late now, though.”

“Hey, do you think that hammer’s still here?”

“What hammer?”

“When I was little, I read this article about a weird hammer that landed in New Mexico that no one could pick up.”

“What, you wanna pull it out of the ground Excalibur-style?” Tyrone laughed.

“I mean, that would be cool, wouldn’t it?”

Tyrone thought for a moment and giggled. “Maybe. I mean who knows, they might make you queen of New Mexico.”

“See? Now we’re on the same page!”

“Okay, well, what if _you_ can’t pick up but _I_ do?”

Tandy made an incredulous but amused face. “ _King_ of New Mexico, obviously?”

“Uhhh, it’s way too hot here. I don’t think I want the job. But you know what, I’ll talk to the hammer and see if I can’t put in a good word for you.”

“Okay,” Tandy giggled. “We _have_ to see if it’s still here now.”

Tandy’s phone dinged with another message. She opened the chat and squinted at what Brigid had sent her.

 **Brigid**  
[Hey, Andre isn’t around to make people disappear again, is he?]

Tandy tried to remain calm, her trauma very nearly bubbling up again. Tyrone sensed her anxiety almost immediately. 

“Tandy, what’s wrong?”

“Hold on…” she shook her head, trying to put her thoughts back in order as she typed out a reply.

[He shouldn’t be… why?]

**[Brigid is typing]**

“Tandy, talk to me,” Tyrone urged her. 

“It’s Brigid. She asked me something weird…”

“Weird how?”

“I’m trying to figure that out.”

**[Brigid is typing]**

“Is she okay?”

“I don’t know, Ty! I’m waiting for her to tell me!”

**[Brigid is typing]**

“Brigid, c’mon! Say something!” She tapped the phone icon on her screen to call Brigid directly. Each dial tone seemed to last longer than the one before it, but she never picked up. She _always_ picked up. Tandy exchanged worried glances with Tyrone, but before they could even register with each other, they jolted in their seats as the bus crashed into an oncoming car.

“Oh, shit!” Tandy yelled. “Ty, you okay?”

Tyrone cobbled back to his senses, but his eyes grew wide as he looked forward. “Tandy?”

Tandy followed his eyes and saw the engines from both vehicles on fire, the smell of gas filling the air. Tyrone and Tandy had no time to lose.

“Ty, start taking people off the bus,” Tandy commanded. “It’s gonna explode any minute.”

“I got it!” Tyrone grabbed the nearest person. “Go cut the driver out of her seat!” With a puff of smoke, he and the passenger were gone.

Tandy started walking toward the front of the crowded bus, telling the other panicking passengers to move to the back along the way. Every second or so, she heard Tyrone whisk more people away. As people pushed past her, she made her way up to the driver’s seat, a dagger at the ready to cut her loose. But when she got there, she saw the safety belt clasped over an empty seat, dust sprinkled over where a driver ought to be. 

As soon as she heard Tyrone teleport back in, she went to him. “No driver,” she said, confused.

“What do you mean there’s no--”

“I don’t know, Ty, but we don’t have time!”

“Well, you’re getting out next.” Tyrone grabbed Tandy by the arm. She was pulled through a millisecond of darkness before ending up on the outside, several feet away from the bus. “There's two more. I’m going in for them,” he continued.

“I’ll check on the people out here,” she replied as she looked around at the bus passengers she had been with. Tyrone disappeared behind her.

She approached a man on the ground, reaching her hand out to help him to his feet. “Hey, do you need help?”

Tandy took the man by the hand, only to have it crumble in her grip. The stranger barely seemed to realize what was happening to him before he disintegrated into dust. She stumbled backwards, her mouth agape, eyes darting all around looking for someone who was right in front of her only a second ago.

“What…?” she whispered. 

Tyrone appeared in front of her, one arm wrapped around someone’s shoulder, the other wrapped around air. As he let go of the person he had, he stumbled forward, dust hitting him in the face as if it was lost to the wind. 

He whipped around trying to find someone else. “I… I had them both. Did you see where the other one went?”

“Tyrone, someone just dissolved into dust in my hands!”

“What are you say...” Before he could finish, he and Tandy began looking. All around them, the passengers they had rescued were disappearing. Some looked in horror as their loved ones vanished while others weakly fell to the ground, becoming nothing before they even landed.

Tyrone’s breath became hard and fast as he tried to make sense of it all. They’d dealt with scores of people disappearing before, but hardly like this. “This isn’t Andre again, is it?”

“I don’t think so…” Tandy swallowed nervously. “I think this is worse.”

“Well, what do we do?”

“I think first, we need to…”

Before she could finish, Tyrone collapsed to the ground, his breathing becoming shallow and weak. Tandy practically flew to his side, propping his head up and holding his hand. 

“Ty!” Tandy was already crying before anything happened to him. “What happened? Are you okay!?”

“I don’t know…” Tyrone’s words came out as barely more than a whisper. “I got really light-headed all of a sudden… Tandy, I can barely see straight…”

“No… no no no no no. Ty, not you too. Don’t leave me, please! I barely know what’s going on and I can’t do this without you!” Tandy looked up and desperately shouted out to a crowd too lost in their own chaos. “Somebody help! Please, can anyone help us!?”

Tandy tried to get Tyrone back up on his feet, but he collapsed every time. She could feel his strength diminishing by the second. “Please Ty,” she begged. “You have to get up!”

“I’m trying, but I can’t…! It’s like half of me just… Tandy…? Tandy, no…!”

The world around Tandy Bowen went silent. She could hardly hear a weak and feeble Tyrone calling out her name. She looked down at her other half helplessly, her tears falling on his face like rain as he tried calling out to her. 

She couldn’t even feel herself going cold, her body fading away little by little, dwindling into nothing. 

“Please stay with me, Tyrone…” 

A darkness began to fall over her. One that she didn’t know. One that was not as welcoming


End file.
